BLOCKING

One of the most neglected areas in junior volleyball is
blocking tactics. Many times I will walk around the gym at a tournament and
watch as team after team lines up their blockers -- outside blocker one arm's
length in from the antenna and, middle blocker right in front of the
opposition's setter. This is fine as long as your opponents all run the same
offense, have players of equal ability, and have the same tendencies in all
rotations. Since this is obviously not the case, we can benefit from the use of
different blocking schemes for different situations.

My teams use four different blocking schemes during
matches. Since our players are also trained to block in all three positions at
the net, this gives us 12 different possibilities to use in any blocking
situation. These different looks allow us to adjust to our opponent's tendencies
in every rotation and also to hide a weak blocker on our side. I do not
understand teams which stand their 5'4" setter in right front every time
and let the opposition's best hitter bomb the ball over her every time! I have
two thoughts for you:

If you
block the ball you don't need to worry about setting it.

If the
other team's best player is hitting over your short blocker you aren't going to
dig many balls to be set.

Blocking is the quickest, surest way to score points. I
don't worry about what will happen if the ball gets by the block until I have
aligned the blockers in order to give us the best chance to block the ball.

I will discuss our four blocking schemes (bunch, spread,
load, and shade) and when we use them. Along the way I will also discuss some
thoughts on team blocking strategy and training players to block in all
positions.

Spread Blocking

Spread blocking is the basic scheme used by most teams. The
deployment of the blockers is listed at the beginning of this page. We use this
scheme about 35% of the time and chiefly against teams with the following
characteristics:

Basic 4-1-5 offense

No dominant player

Ineffective quick attack

This scheme should allow us to have one blocker up in the
middle all the time and hopefully a double block on the outside, though we all
have experience with teams that don't close the block on the outside. A team can
be effective with this strategy until you run into a team with a more
sophisticated offense or one with one or two dominant players.

Bunch Bl

ocking

Bunch blocking is the next most popular scheme in our
blocking strategies. We also use this scheme about 35% of the time. The
deployment of the blockers is as follows:

Outside
Hitter: Fronts the opponent's back one set.

Middle
Blocker: Fronts the opponent's front one set.

Rightside
Hitter: Fronts the opponent's 31 (shoot) set.

This scheme is very effective against teams that set a
variety of quick sets, run combination plays, or hit two's or 32's frequently.
In bunch blocking we know we will have a blocker waiting for any quick set as
well as the ability to get two or three blockers up on any play set. We
accomplish this without giving up the ability to put up a double block on the
outside.

Load Blocking

Load blocking is an extremely useful scheme against any
team that runs a 5-1 offense or has a weak attack on the right side. This scheme
can be used anywhere between 10-25% of the time. Anytime a team has only two
front row hitters who are hitting in front of the setter or has a weak attacker
behind the setter we shift into load blocking (you would probably be surprised
at how many teams have two or three rotations like this).

The deployment of blockers is as follows:

Rightside
Hitter: Starts at the antenna

Middle
Blocker: Fronts the opponent's 31 set

Outside
Hitter: Fronts the opponent's front one set

This scheme allows us to always have one blocker up on the
quick set and reduce the amount of movement necessary to form a solid block on
the outside. When we are in this scheme, the back row players know they have
total responsibility for the setter's attacks. I have found this scheme to be
capable of shutting down most teams in their front row setter rotations.

Shade Blocking

Shade blocking is used most of the time against some teams
and not at all against others. This scheme is used against teams that run a very
effective front one set. The deployment of blockers is as follows:

Outside
Hitter: Starts one arm's length in from the antenna

Middle
Blocker: Starts three feet in front of the opposition's setter

Rightside
Hitter: Starts next to the middle blocker in front of the opponent's setter

This scheme allows us to put two blockers up on the
opponent's middle (who is hitting 1's). We use this to control a hot hitterwho is putting away the one set consistently.

Mix and Match

We frequently will give each blocker a scheme in which to
line up. A common example of this is the following:

Outside
Hitter: Spread

Middle
Blocker: Bunch

Rightside
Hitter: Bunch

This allows us to protect against the one, the back one,
and play sets while leaving a strong right side blocker waiting for the four
set.

It is important to define your blocker's responsibilities
within each scheme. For example, when we are in bunch all three blockers are
expected to be up blocking any second tempo set. When we are in load we might
tell our left side blocker to go and triple block the four set.

All our players are prepared to block in any position. We
frequently leave our outsides on the right and our opposites on the left. I
believe that our use of various schemes has had a psychological benefit on our
team as well. Our players know they are expected to call out the oppositions
hitters and tendencies each time we serve. They also receive the scheme from the
bench before each serve. This ensures the players are completely focused on the
task at hand. I also feel that all the attention we pay to blocking tactics
creates an atmosphere in which our players expect to be in the right place at
the right time. This in turn fosters a very aggressive attitude towards
blocking.

I have also seen other teams greatly affected by the
effective use of blocking strategies. When a middle blocker is faced with a
double block while hitting the one or the outside hitter looks at two blockers
waiting outside for her in her team's two hitter rotations, their confidence can
be drastically reduced.